


Out of Time

by thoughtsappear



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - TiMER Fusion, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Timers, based on the movie timer, slightly undefined relationships, soulmate angst, victor likes to meddle, yuuri and victor are super married
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-03
Updated: 2017-07-03
Packaged: 2018-11-22 21:26:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11388747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thoughtsappear/pseuds/thoughtsappear
Summary: Yuri's timer was blank.





	Out of Time

**Author's Note:**

> This is an AU based on the movie Timer. Basically, the timers tell you when you are going to meet your soulmate, but it only works if both people have timers installed.

Yuri’s timer was blank.

He’d had it installed on his eighteenth birthday, mostly due to Victor’s insistence. And due to Victor’s cash flow.

“You’ll never know for sure unless you do it,” he crowed.

It was easy for him. He’d met Katsudon and convinced him to get a timer. Of course, their timers had immediately synced and confirmed what those two idiots already knew. Victor had become completely devoted to all those sappy ideals of soul mates, true love, fate, people being meant for each other, etc.

Yuri wasn’t so sure he believed in all that. He had a pretty bad track record with love, and so had most of his friends. His parents had never married. Grandpa had lost Grandma years ago and seemed destined to live his life alone. Georgi had his heart stomped on by every girl he offered it to. Yakov and Lilia tolerated each other, but the great love they had supposedly shared seemed as if it had never existed in this life. Mila had been convinced to get a timer by Victor, but it told her she wouldn’t meet her soulmate for twenty more years.

All very discouraging.

Yuri’s blank timer was comforting in a way. It meant that he didn’t have to feel bound to any timeline or deadlines. Maybe his soulmate was someone he already knew, maybe he would meet them tomorrow. It was almost like having no timer at all again.

Tell that to Victor though.

“You should ask Otabek to get a timer,” he pressed.

Yuri shook his head incessantly. “No fucking way.”

He couldn’t ask Otabek to get a timer for so many reasons. Asking him to get a timer would insinuate that he wanted his timer to sync up with his own. Asking Otabek to get a timer was asking Otabek to be his soulmate. The idea of Otabek being his soulmate was almost as scary as the idea of him not. Their sort-of dating thing was complicated enough already.

In the time he’d known Otabek, they’d rarely spoken about the timers. His family didn’t believe in them, thought they were a waste of money. Otabek’s parents had been married twenty years and they didn’t need technology to tell them they were soulmates. Otabek’s sisters had found husbands the old fashioned way. His parents weren’t worried about Otabek’s lovelife. His skating career was more important than finding a wife.

He must have known about Yuri’s timer. It was hard not notice it, right there on his wrist, blanked out. Saying everything while saying nothing.

* * *

 

Victor’s TiMER commercial was the most nauseating thing Yuri’d ever seen. It was these long pensive shots of Victor walking Makkachin across the Japanese seashore looking forlorn and sad. It was clips of his short program, with weepy music behind it. It was close ups of his blue eyes looking watery and his hands clasped together. It was all so pathetic.

Then the mood shifted and the commercial began it’s second act. This part was where it got really gag-worthy. The music became more spirited and happy, and they started showing Victor and Katsudon training. The whole thing was intercut with cutesy interviews of Victor and Katsudon wearing fuzzy sweaters and sharing a heart shaped pink couch. It was footage of them at their dumb wedding, and their gold rings glinting in the sun as they walked their poodles together.

It was footage of them holding hands with Victor’s voiceover, “I am so glad I convinced Yuuri to get a timer, now I know we are truly soulmates.”

They zoomed in on Victor’s zeroed out timer and the commercial ended on a shot of the two of them embracing at Katsudon’s last World’s when he’d won the gold. The TiMER people had told Victor in just 3 weeks since it started airing, business was up 200%. He’d taken Katsudon on a special trip to Fiji and the two of them returned to Russia looking tan and smug.

Now that they were retired, they could do things like that. Never mind the fact that Victor was supposed to be choreographing Yuri’s program for the next GPF or that Katsudon was supposed to be helping Lilia with Otabek’s dance training. Otabek was still horrible at ballet and often so frustrating to Lilia that she opened a bottle of wine at dinner. Katsudon had helped him to gain some flexibility in his hips.

The benefit was that he got lots of one on one time with Otabek while they were gone. They could go on long motorcycle rides after practice, stay out late, drink beer and listen to cool music in the dark. There was no one slipping condoms in his practice bag or making suggestive comments about stretching before he’d even had his coffee in the morning. No pressure about soulmates or timers or boyfriends or anything.

* * *

 

Victor was a smug asshole.

“So I see that you and Otabek have been training together while we’ve been gone,” he said, between sips of this pungent tea he’d started drinking instead of coffee. Victor was on this big health kick and had signed up for this organic food delivery service. He was insufferable. Yuri knew for a fact that Katsudon was sneaking treats during practice breaks. He knew because Katsudon gave him a candy bar to keep him quiet.

“Yeah, what were we supposed to do while you and the pig were fucking off to some island,” Yuri replied.

“Lilia says you’ve been spending the night in his hotel room,” Victor added. He looked at Yuri with that douchey silver hair in his eyes.

“No, just hanging out sometimes.” Yuri leaned over to tie his skates. The faster he got those on, the faster he could get away from this interrogation.

“I don’t think I need to remind you, he goes back to Almaty next week.” Victor wore that smirk he was so fond of. “Have you thought anymore about making your relationship official before he goes?”

Yuri focused on his toes. Once he could feel them, he tore off his skate guards and jumped on the ice. None of this seemed to deter Victor, who wouldn’t shut up, even as Yuri started a lap around the rink into a double axel, triple toe loop combination. The landing was a little shaky, chalk it up to interference.

“They’re doing a special at TiMER next week,” Victor shouted. “Mention my name and get a free tote bag…Yuri, pull in your elbows!”

* * *

 

The two losers also know as the Nikiforov-Katsukis insisted on taking them out to dinner to celebrate the end of summer training. The clock was ticking away, reminding everyone that Otabek was returning to Almaty in just two days, and Victor seemed to take it as a personal affront that Yuri wasn’t tagging himself as Mr. Otabek Altin in all of his Instagram pics.

Yuri was embarrassed, but he also knew that Victor was paying and this was a good restaurant. One that served more than organic kale. So he did as he was asked and put on a clean shirt without any rips, brushed his hair, and ran a lint roller over his black jeans to catch any cat hairs.

Otabek was wearing a navy blue jacket and his undercut looked freshly trimmed. He also smelled like that cologne Georgi used to wear. Yuri suspected that maybe it was the same bottle, as Georgi had given away most of his possessions during his most recent “what does it all mean” purge. Yuri had gotten a nice Christian Louboutin nail polish out of it, so he was happy. He painted his nails with it as his one act of rebellion for this dinner.

Victor showed off, ordering in French because it was a french restaurant. The things he picked out had enough butter, cream and salt to undo any of the goodwill he’d done his body from the health food he’d been eating before. They chatted about the usual things, Otabek’s family, Yuri’s cat, Victor’s dog, Yuri’s new program, other skaters. Victor and Kastsudon held hands above the table between courses and ate off each other’s forks. Victor was the type of lovesick idiot that would have fed Katsudon like a baby bird if it wasn’t socially unacceptable. Yuri stole bites off of Otabek’s plate but that was as far as it went. Otabek wasn’t eating his mushrooms, so they were up for grabs.

“So Beka,” Victor said, after feeding Katsudon a bite. “After you go home to Almaty are you going to have Yuri visit?”

Yuri looked at Otabek for an answer. He didn’t seem caught off guard by the question, even though it shook Yuri to his core. They hadn’t even talked about it. They’d barely talked at all about the future.They’d spent tons of time together, but that was practice or riding the bike, or drinking in the dark, making out during movies the hotel played all day long for free. They’d yet to talk about what would happen now that things were different.

As always Victor and Katsudon liked to take things too fast and too far. They didn’t seem to realize normal relationships took time.

“I don’t know,” Otabek replied, calmly sipping his water. “I’d like to have him visit in the fall, but with competition, who knows when we’ll have the time.”

“It can be really hard when you are both in other countries,” Katsudon offered. “I know Victor and I were lucky that we trained together and lived together so we didn’t have that first part of our relationship apart.”

Not helpful Piggy. Yuri tried not to break his fork and instead shoved a bite of potato in his mouth, chewing before he said anything. It was a tactic he’d learned to keep from saying something he ended up having to apologize for.

“We’ll be fine,” Yuri said through clenched teeth. “We don’t need to be attached at the dick like you two.”

Yuri excused himself to use the bathroom, and when he returned, the plates had been cleared and Katsudon and Victor were making kissy faces at each other. Nothing out of the ordinary, but the expression on Otabek’s face was slightly troubled, and Yuri just knew those assholes had done something behind his back.

“Let’s have dessert!” Victor clapped his hands.

“How’s the diet going?” Yuri asked with a knowing smirk as they practically licked their plates clean. Otabek hardly touched his pears and ice cream, and didn’t offer them to Yuri even as the ice cream melted into little runny vanilla puddles.

Otabek drove him home to Lilia’s and declined to come inside to play video games like he’d done almost every other night. Yuri waited expectantly at the door for Otabek to kiss him, hug him, something, but instead he just said goodnight and peeled off on his bike.

* * *

 

“I suggested Otabek get a timer,” Victor said like he wasn’t just ruining Yuri’s life.

Yuri stopped in the middle of stretching and looked at Victor. Victor shrugged and helped him lean back into his split. Yuri wondered if he stole his Rogaine how long it would take him to go completely bald. Yuri wondered if he left Victor out in the woods how long it would take for dogs to eat him. They’d probably choke.

“You weren’t going to,” Victor added. “I just wanted to make sure he knew it was an option.”

“Is that why he acted so weird after I came back from the bathroom?” Yuri asked. He was still planning the best way he could murder this man and not have it affect his skating career. He’d wait until the next time Katsudon passive aggressively tweeted about him not doing the dishes. Then he’d have an accomplice.

“I don’t need you to interfere in my life Victor!” Yuri snapped.

Otabek came around the corner at that exact moment, saw Yuri’s face, heard Yuri’s voice, and predictably backed out of the room. Yuri finished his stretches, fuming the whole time. Victor didn’t seem to notice, nor did he apologize. He merely corrected Yuri’s form when doing his squats.

“What did he say?” Yuri asked, later when he’d run off most of his aggression. He’d also spent twenty minutes at the punching bag which had taken some of the fight out of him as well.

“He said no.” Victor handed him his water bottle and Yuri gulped it down. “He didn’t say why.”

* * *

 

Yuri barged into Otabek’s room. Otabek wasn’t embarrassed even though he was standing in front of his bed in nothing but a very thin pair of pajama pants. His hair was wet and he had a towel around his neck.

“Am I your boyfriend?” he asked, putting his hands on his hips and trying to look his most intimidating.

“Really?” Otabek shifted the towel and rubbed it against his head. “You have to ask me that question?”

“I need to know,” Yuri replied. He couldn’t look directly at Otabek, so he glanced around the bland hotel room. He wondered if the beer they bought last weekend was still in the mini-fridge.

“Yes.”

Otabek walked into the bathroom for a moment, dropping off the towel, then reappeared. He still wasn’t wearing a shirt and his bare chest was very distracting. Yuri still couldn’t meet his eyes, so instead he looked at the floor, then his own hands.

He didn’t want to say it. It wasn’t fair to ask, but he had to know. “Why won’t you get a timer for me?”

“I don’t need a computer chip to tell me what I feel,” Otabek said, reaching out to take Yuri’s wrist.

Yuri sat down on the bed with a heavy thunk. He felt like he was going to throw up or cry, or both. Otabek didn’t release his wrist. Yuri tried to hide behind his hair, but Otabek was having none of that. He pushed the long blond strands behind his ears and stared down at Yuri, waiting for a response.

Yuri couldn’t hide from him. “I’ll get it removed.”

Otabek’s intense expression hardly faltered as he shook his head. “It’s okay.”

“Fucking Victor! I let him get in my head, it won’t happen again.”

“Let’s just take things as they come,” Otabek said. “All this talk about the future, and soulmates, I’m not ready for that.”

He sat down next to Yuri and put his arm around him. He seemed almost sad, and Yuri felt like such an idiot for saying anything. He leaned into Otabek and let him stroke his hair until they both were calm, breathing at the same pace.

“We can take it slow,” Yuri told him. “We don’t need to get engaged or pick out curtains.”

He kissed Otabek until he smiled. “We have time to figure this out.”

Yuri spent the night. They stayed up until late talking in bed, words just seemed to come easier in the dark. Yuri tried not to think about the fact that Otabek was leaving soon. He consoled himself with the fact that he finally had a boyfriend. He couldn't wait to update his instagram.

* * *

 

Yuri stirred in his sleep, curled up against Otabek. The timer on his wrist was beeping. He opened his eyes just a crack to see why.

7 days.


End file.
